Local federal transportation funding may be under review but has not been paused

As the second administration of President Trump continues, there is a lot of uncertainty about the future of federal funding. That’s certainly the case in transportation where projects funded by the United States government have to go through additional steps of scrutiny.

Last week, the Charlottesville Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board met for the first time of the year. Federal law mandates that there be local bodies such as this one that make decisions on transportation projects. One of the items on their agenda was a review of the “Unified Planning Work Program.”

“It really guides the work that MPO staff will be doing for the next fiscal year and identifies all of the transportation planning activities that we would be working on,” said transportation planner Taylor Jenkins.

Jenkins said federal law requires MPOs to address ten planning factors ranging from economic vitality to travel and tourism. Staff are recommending adding four additional factors including equity and climate action. Those were included in the recent Long Range Transportation Plan.

Noting that eighty percent of the funding for MPO staff comes from the federal government, City Councilor Natalie Oschrin asked what changes might be expected.

“How much of that is in danger?” Oschrin asked.

That question was fielded by Christine Ja cobs, the executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. She said she’d received correspondence from the U.S. Department of Transportation that sought to clarify recent directives.

“In every transition of leadership there is going to be a review of documentation,” Jacobs said. “They have specifically noted that there is no pause in our funding right now but there is a comprehensive review of all documentation.”

That review would include the Unified Planning Work Program as well as the Long Range Transportation Plan adopted by the MPO in May 2024

Another member of the MPO asked if this were a good time to add equity and climate change to the Unified Planning Work Program. Jacobs responded.

“I have directed my staff that we should continue with business as usual and not preemptively sanitize any of our documentation until we are directed to do so and so since this was a priority of the community through the planning processes we have gone through, we are recommending continuing to include it,” Jacobs said.

However, Jacobs said such an order has not yet come in. The MPO will take a vote on the Unified Planning Work Program in April.

Listen to the story:

Before you go: There are a lot of changes happening in the American system of government as the second Trump administration has been making broad changes since taking office. That’s unleashed a lot of uncertainty, and one purpose of journalism is to sort out how the mechanisms are being changed. I’ve been covering the mechanisms up close for a long while, and this is in keeping with those stories. This was originally in the March 3, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.